Ngidi, Raina knock Kings XI out; Royals secure playoffs spot
Lungi Ngidi bowled a fiery spell of 4 for 10 to keep Kings XI to 153 before a strong and changed CSK line-up changed it down
Lungi Ngidi bowled a fiery spell of 4 for 10 to keep Kings XI to 153 before a strong and changed CSK line-up changed it down
Scorer: Binoy George | Commentator: @varunshetty
12:08am And that is all we have for you tonight! The end of the league phase, a couple of days off and we'll be back at it. It'll be Sunrisers Hyderabad v Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders v Rajasthan Royals in our first confirmed line-up. We'll bring that to you of course. Keep the conversation going on our Twitter channel, stick around for the post-match stuff coming in tonight, including our expert analysis. On behalf of Akshay and Binoy - a good night to all of you!
Ngidi: A very good day out. Really didn't expect it to go that well but I'll take it. Didn't expect [this track]. Usually they say the subcontinent is slow and low but after seeing Chahar, I was grinning. It's a team that really values family values and it's been warm. Being with MS Dhoni, just a cricketing mind, it's been a great help.
Lungi Ngidi is the Man of the Match.
Dhoni: If you see the bowling line up it was swinging a bit. In a game like this you want to take a lot of wickets while it is swinging. So with Bhajji and Chahar going in - it creates a bit of chaos. With proper batsmen the bowlers are consistent, somehow to lower order players they try the bouncers, offcutters, etc. [About the finish] All the fielders were up so I went for the big shot. [About the franchise] we have a set of people who are very close to the players, that makes it very easy for the captain. Also we have a really good team. Right from the first edition, we kept adding players and they kept performing - Ashwin, Bollinger, Mohit. The big challenge will be in two years when most of the players won't be around. We like to do the process right because that's what gives you the result. I remember the finals, where it went wrong: you need to remember where it went wrong. On that particular day you have to be at the best coz everyone wants to win. All of those things matter.
Chahar: I got the opportunity today after a long time. I was waiting for a long time. From the first match I liked bowling on this wicket - today also it was moving around a biut. We did well to restrict them to 160. [Batting] Good to get confidence ahead of playoffs and if I get a chance I'll do well. I've been working since the last six years on my pace - I was a swing bowler but now I have pace, so it's giving me a good advantage. We waited two years for this opportunity - hope we do well. [Watson] was rested. If KKR hadn't won, I would also have been rested.
Ashwin: Few tough days at the office now. We didn't bat well, we lost too many wickets early. Karun batted well but we were 20-30 below par. We put down a catch - that's been our story. We had a horrible May. We had a bowler for the conditions in Ankit, we should have latched onto that catch. The first half we were playing down at Mohali and our middle order didn't show up in the latter half. Ankit was a positive, among many others - KL doing really well, we have the purple cap too. We haven't really put ourselves in a position where we can command a win on our terms. To be very blunt about it, our game against RCB cost us a lot - momentum and morale.
Siddhesh: "CSK in a nutshell: You can hand us the game gift-wrapped, but we will tear it up, throw it down a cliff, dive down after it, and come down in style on a parachute. "
Vivek: "Irony of the game.. KL and rayudu out at single digits, tye goes wicketless.. the exception was left for the last.."
Bhaskar: "The first ever IPL where not a single match was completely washed off due to rain " --- Everyone, you know who to contact if we see rain at the playoffs.
Srinath: "After all the murkiness, after all the off-screen drama, after 2 years of ban, 2 teams Rajasthan and Chennai are through to the playoffs. Surely the stuff dreams are made of ! "
11:48pm Somewhere in Pune, our correspondent Deiva Muthu is performing a Sourav Ganguly celebration. It looked like the game would meander into a tame finish, a dull prospect for the thousands of supporters who had travelled quite a way to get to the stadium. But it was everything they hoped for in the end and in true Dhoni fashion, it was the long route. Kings XI have had a stunning collapse in the second half of the tournament, this will be hard to get over. It's their ninth league stage exit in 11 seasons. The worst for any team.
Here it is, the last over of the league phase
Shashank: "@Varun: Why are people still typing in capitals? Isn't the capital already out of the IPL? #selfthoo"
By inverting his middle-order, the CSK captain created confusion. A touch of madness, perhaps, but as always there was a method to Dhoni's madness
Pace, bounce, swing and carry: over four overs, the 22-year old fast bowler from South Africa showed all that and more to shut out Kings XI Punjab's hopes of making the playoffs
It was Ashwin who promised to defy conventions in the IPL but it was his former franchise captain MS Dhoni who took things to a new level
Lungi Ngidi bowled a fiery spell of 4 for 10 to keep Kings XI to 153 before a strong and changed CSK line-up changed it down
Kings XI Punjab need to beat Chennai Super Kings to have a shot at making the playoffs, but that result matters only if Mumbai Indians have lost to Delhi Daredevils